Graphics Card Dying?

Well, I just recently got my laptop back from HP Repairs. I sent it in due to excessive heat (90+ Celsius for CPU cores, 109 Celsius for GPU) and got it back yesterday.

While HP Repairs did drop the temperature of the CPU cores by about 15 Celsius and the GPU by about 10 Celsius, the temperatures are still quite high.

Anyways, that's not the topic here.

I've laid off CoD4 so that I can resolve my issue with HP before my laptop explodes, so I've been playing Guild Wars (an RPG that's not very graphically straining). Anyways, I've been experiencing more and more times where my screen would freeze and start flashing, followed by the screen turning off and then the screen coming back on. Windows says that it was a result of the video driver error (or something like that...keep missing the popup bubbles ><") but I'm worried that this means my GPU is dying.

Am I worrying too much, or are video driver crashes not supposed to be that common?

 

They shouldn't be happening like that. You could try updating to the latest drivers, but it definitely sounds like failing hardware to me, especially noting the previous temperatures you've experienced.

 

If you are overheating... usually any temp over 90C degrees is bad.

when was the last time that you cleaned out the fans and vents thoroughly...?

if never, then thats why.

1) remove battery
2) remove/unscrew the panels on the bottom of the notebook to get to fans and vents (if possible)
3) use flashlight to look through vents for the dust (if you cant see the light on the other end, then the vents are clogged up)
4) go outside, get some compressed air (cans or compressor @ 50 PSI) and give the vents a good airing out all directions ( concentrating on the vents)
.... you might want to brace the fan blade(s) when airing it out (with a toothpick or paperclip to prevent it from spinning out too much)
.... or use short bursts (1-2 secs) of air instead of bracing the fans.
5) go get some Q-tips and swab the fan blades and the area around it
6) then go do a second airing with compressed air (all directions again focusing on the fans and vents) to push out the dust that was dislodged from the Q-tips

7*) Now go use the flashlight again and look through the vents (shine the flashlight from the fan, you look through the other end) for anymore dust clogs.

8) Then start up the notebook... and let the fans cycle up (use the Fan Toggle at max speed if your system has it) to push out any other dust that might have been stuck.

If all goes well you should be able to close up the notebook and...

you're done.

*repeat this step until its cleaned out.

Thats pretty much it.

Just make sure to do this every two-three months... it should take about 15-20min per cleaning if you want to be thorough.

________________________

Gaming notebooks are a new thing, you must realize that you have to take some extra care of them over typical use notebooks:

1) Battery: to maintain the longevity of any rechargeable battery
- you must NEVER overcharge it [especially for long durations of time] by keeping it plugged into AC
- when it reaches 100% you should unplug it and let it discharge to 5-15%, then plug it back to power
- OR you can just charge it to 50%+ and remove the battery and store in cool place.. not the fridge [remember to use it occasionally 3-4 time a year to charge and discharge it].

2.) Heat: to prevent a healthy notebook from overheating
- ALWAYS use the notebook on a clean, hard & flat surface
- RECOMMENDED to be used on a notebook cooler... namely the Zalman ZM-NC1000 or ZM-NC2000
- check your fans underneath occasionally (at least once a month or two) for any dust clogs [clean them out with Q-tips and air cans/compressors]
- ALWAYS monitor the temps (CPU, GPU, HDD, etc..) to watch for fluctuations, which would indicate overheating by dust usually
(for Clevo notebooks) use the Fan Toggle to switch all fans to Max Speed when gaming and such.

By doing these simple things, your entire system will easily last for more than 3 years.

 

Aiyah Gophn, too much copy-pasta! Doesn't really answer my Q.

The HP guys said they checked the vents as well and it seemed fine.

 

sounds like hardware issues, dust shouldn't be the issue as it just came back from service. i would use the momentum of it being serviced once to get repaired asap. does it happen only while using 3d (gaming)?

 

AFAIK, yes.

 

well first install the most up to date drivers, then try running the 3dmark loop to see if you reproduce this easily.

 

I'm using nVidia ForceWare 174.32 that I pulled off of HP's site, but I'm guessing I should use Laptop2Go's drivers instead?

 

give it a try what can u lose ?
go for the 177.41 they are good

 

I just want to say some of that battery info in the long post is wrong. You can't overcharge batteries in notebooks because they have a cutoff circuit that stops charging when they're full.

But anyway, those temperatures are still high. I don't know what my CPU temps are (definitely going to check out though), but I know my GPU hovers around 49c when doing basic desktop stuff and it tops out at 64c while playing games like CoD4 and GRID.

I'm using the 177.35 drivers from laptopvideo2go.